My Guardian Angel
by ewace246
Summary: For the longest time, my sister was my only friend, but even she eventually left me to search for her boyfriend, Percy Jackson. I thought I was completely alone. I didn't realize I had an angel looking out for me. This is the story of me, my angel, and the first 42 days of our adventures. Why 42, well you'll see.
1. Chapter 1

Today is the day my sister finally comes home. While she was gone, I could hardly do any activities because of the "buddy system" that had been installed last year when Mitchell tried to climb the lava wall without anyone to hold his ropes and almost died. We lost enough people in the second titan war that Chiron decided that it would be safest if there were at least two people at every activity. It was okay for a while, but then my sister left to go look for boyfriend, Percy Jackson, who mysteriously went missing a few months ago. The only activities deemed "safe" enough to do without a buddy were arts&crafts and independent study. I'm great at both, but after a while they just get really boring.

_Annabeth said she would be back by lunchtime._ I thought as I sat the vacant Athena table and stared at my lunch. Most of the campers had already finished, but I wanted to wait for Annabeth. Besides, there wasn't that much else to do.

"Malcolm!" Quintus called as he walked towards me. I looked up at my much older half-brother, but my face smile faded when I saw his expression.

"She's not coming, is she?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, I just got the Iris message" he said solemnly, "I'm sorry."

I wanted to cry or scream at Quintus or make a scene, but that wouldn't help anything. So instead, I just calmly stood up and walked out of the dining pavilion, leaving my uneaten lunch at the empty table. I didn't have any destination in mind. I just wanted to be alone. Unfortunately, as I stumbled on towards the woods, blinking tears out of my eyes, I encountered Sherman and Mark. As sons of Ares, they are very rude and always trying to aggravate you. I try to ignore them, but it doesn't help much.

"Oh, look, Mark, it's Malcolm and he's crying," blurted Sherman.

"Hey crybaby, what are you doing this afternoon? Oh wait, I forgot. Nothing! Because you don't have a buddy," said Mark.

"Hey crybaby, does it ever bother you that you don't have any friends so you can't do any activities?"

"Hey Malcolm, do you want to be my buddy?" Sherman smiled mischievously, "We could do the lava wall." Even if I wasn't the son of the wisdom goddess, I would still have the common sense to not trust my life in the hands of the same bloke who dunked my head in a toilet on my first day of camp.

"I thought I was your buddy Mark," Sherman looked hurt that his brother would desert him for me. He wasn't the brightest. As they bickered amongst themselves, I slipped away into the woods and hid behind a tree.

I suppose it was a really beautiful and peaceful part of the woods, but honestly, I wasn't in the mood. I had waited for so long for Annabeth to come back, and then she just deserted me. I could feel the tears streaming down my cheeks but I didn't care. I cried because Mark and Sherman were right about one thing: I didn't have any friends. I never fit in with the mortal world, and I didn't have any cool powers like the other children at camp. The only person who kind of understood me was my sister, and now she left me too. I cried so hard that I almost didn't notice the boy starring at me from behind the bush on my right. At first I thought that Mark or Sherman had found me, but neither of them would have hid from me. I turned to get a better look at him. Once he realized that I had seen him, he slowly emerged from the shrubbery.

"What's wrong Malcolm?" The boy asked. He looked about 13 or 14, but his eyes looked like they belonged to someone decades older. I stared at him for a few moments, unsure if he was real, before I realized he expected me to respond.

"How did you know my name?"

"Those boys don't exactly have an inside voice," he stated, "but that's not what we're talking about. I asked you a question."

"Well, my sister deserted me, I can't do any activities because of stupid safety rules, the only person who even offered to be my buddy was the bully who dunked my head in a toilet, and here I am rambling to my imaginary friend from the bush."

"I'm not imaginary," he protested.

"Whatever," I said as I started to leave before I got into an argument with my imaginary friend, "you don't understand"

"Hey," he called. I stopped and turned around to face him. "I'm all alone too. My sister left me for the hunters, right before she…" he trailed off, lost in thought.

"What?"

"Nevermind, it doesn't matter," he said, anxious to change the subject "the point is, now you have a friend," he stated, "hopefully I do to."

"Oh," I realized he was asking me to be his friend "yeah, of course you do."

"A quarter till four," he muttered, staring up at the sky, "I need to be going."

"Can't you stay a while longer?" I asked, not wanting to lose my new friend so soon.

"I wish I could," he said with a sigh "I will return tomorrow. Farewell, Malcolm."

"Wait! What's your name?"

"Nicholas Di Angelo," he said with a slight hesitation, "but you can call me Nico," and with that, he melted into the shadows.

_Authors Note: In case you haven't figured this out yet, this story takes place during that time period after Last Olympian, but before Lost Hero. Just some background: In my story, Quintus is just a grown-up son of Athena. He's not Daedalus or a robot or anything else. Yes, in the books there are about a dozen other children of Athena at camp half-blood, but in my story they probably fell through a crack in space and time. Probably, either that or they never existed. Likely both. Anyway, I made camp half-blood out of legos, and in lego camp half-blood we only have enough lego people to put two or three in each one. Plus, in the books, only 2 Athena campers were even mentioned by name. So there. Nico gets to narrate the next chapter (finally, a Nico-chapter!), so stay tuned. I'll try to finish it before Christmas. This is my first story, so let me know what you think. For you DW fans out there, the crossover part won't come in until later, but it will be there, and I will try to make it fantastic._


	2. Chapter 2

I had never meant to spy on the boy, but once I saw his eyes, I couldn't just walk away. I had never meant to speak to Malcolm, but he saw me. I had never meant to stay long, but I couldn't just leave him alone. I had seen those eyes before in my reflection in the river Styx, and every time I looked into his, I could feel his pain. He felt alone and unloved; I could tell that much from his eyes, but there was something more to his story, something I just couldn't figure out.

Shadow travel can be quite exhausting. Especially doing it twice in a day and then going back tomorrow. But I was starting to get used to it. I returned the next afternoon and found him waiting there. He looked better than he had yesterday. His gray eyes-no longer red from crying-drilled me like I was an equation that he couldn't quite balance.

"You're a child of darkness, aren't you?" he asked, still staring.

"Yes, I am. How did you-"

"Research," he replied as if it was something he did often.

"You looked me up?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. He blushed.

"Well, after you disappeared into darkness yesterday, I was curious," he admitted, "I just wanted to know how you did it."

"Well, maybe sometime I'll show you, but right now I'm a bit too tired. Can we do something that doesn't require much energy?"

"Sure, follow me," he exclaimed, grabbing me hand and dragging me further into the woods. Usually I can't stand people touching me, but somehow, it was okay. It wasn't just the fact that Malcolm's hand was soft and warm. There was something so right, so familiar about his hand in mine that I just couldn't quite remember…

Suddenly Malcolm stopped. "Nico, we're here," he said. I hadn't realized I was still grasping his hand. I quickly let go and scanned my surroundings. We appeared to be in a clearing in the woods about twenty feet wide. Malcolm laid down on the grass and rested his hands on his head, staring up at the blue sky.

"Are you going to stand there all afternoon?" he asked with a smile, looking up at me. I laid down on the grass next to him.

"The sky really is beautiful. Sometimes it looks like a blanket stretched over our heads, other times it looks like a great dome reaching towards infinity, trying to escape."

"Escape what?"

"This world. It's as if the pain and suffering of this world. Maybe that's why it's always blue."

"Actually it's really just the fact that blue light is scattered more frequently because of its shorter wavelengths and our eyes perceive the sky to be blue," he said, without stopping to take a breath. "Besides, there's more than just pain and suffering to this world. Life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don't always spoil the good things and make them unimportant."

"I hope I don't' offend you by saying this, but Malcolm, sometimes you sound like a textbook."

"Yeah, I've been told that before. It's an Athena thing."

"You're a child of Athena?" I asked. He nodded, as if it were obvious. "Then your sister… was Annabeth?"

"You know her?"

"Know her, I…" my voice cracked. I couldn't bring myself to tell him, not yet at least. "I met her a few years ago. Your eyes look just like hers."

"Yeah, we both have our mother's gray eyes." I gazed up at the clouds and noticed something important: Apollo had driven his sun chariot across the sky much more quickly than I had imagined. It was nearly four.

"Malcolm, I have to go soon, but I'll be back tomorrow at the same time" I said, gathering up my energy to shadow travel. Soon the blue sky, the clearing in the woods, and the brother of Annabeth disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3

As I laid in my bed, waiting for lunchtime, I stared at the ceiling. Many years ago when Quintus was just a child and lived in the Athena cabin, his brother Oliver had painted glowing stars on the ceiling. They weren't stars all the same size with five points; you could actually see all the constellations. When he was older, Oliver left camp to go work on the Hubble telescope, but Quintus stayed here. Each Athena kid had a specialty. Oliver's was astrology, Quintus's was sword-fighting, Annabeth's was architecture, and me…well that was the question. I was never particularly good at anything. It wasn't that I was bad at everything; it was just that I never liked the things that I was good at, and I was never good at the things I liked. People always told me that I was destined for a career in research or a history professor because I was so great at boring people. I liked reading and learning new things, but with dyslexia, it can be difficult.

My favorite thing to do is go on adventures. I have always dreamed of creating something so great and powerful that it would change life for the better and be remembered for millennium, like King Arthur, the hero in one of my favorite books. He not only fixed the feudal system for the better by creating the round table and giving knights a sense of nobility, but when that failed, he sent them on a quest for a mystical cup rather than allowing another crusade. Arthur had a wizard and at least half a country to support him. He even had Lancelot, who showed up as a young boy who had practiced tournament games all day and night to impress the king he was in love with and became the greatest knight ever… well, until he fell in love with the king's wife and was sentenced to death. Even then he still escaped, slayed some bad guys, rescued the queen, and ran away to France. Not that many people got a happy ending in the middle ages.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud air horn: time for lunch. I raced towards the dining pavilion, not just because I was hungry, but also because the sooner I ate my lunch, the sooner I could leave and go to the woods. Once I got there, I quickly gobbled down my lunch and was just about to leave when someone called me. Why does he only ever talk to me when I'm leaving the pavilion to go somewhere?

"Malcolm, why are you in such a hurry?" Quintus asked quizzically.

_Should I tell him about Nico?_ I wondered. _I've always been able to trust Quintus, but something held me back. Would not telling him count as lying or keeping a secret? Was it even my secret to tell? Would Nico be okay with me telling him? Well, Quintus is a reliable, trustworthy, and kind-hearted person, but what if something went wrong? What if something happened to Nico or he decided that he didn't want to be my friend anymore. I should probably ask Nico before telling Quintus._

"That's a good plan," I said to myself, not realizing I had spoken aloud.

"What?" he stared at me, very confused.

"Asking people where they're going, that's a good plan," I rambled, pushing him towards some other campers, "you should go ask more them, I bet they're going somewhere real interesting."

Before he had a chance to respond I bolted towards the woods. By the time I got to the tree I was supposed to meet Nico at, I was out of breath and he was leaning against the tree.

"Well, I guess someone's anxious to see me," he smirked, "have you got anything planned for today?"

"Yeah," I panted, "just…let me…catch my breath…" Once I had, I walked over to the tree he was standing next to, jumped, grabbed the knot in the tree, hoisted myself up, stuck my foot in the knot, grabbed the next branch, and wrapped my legs around it until I was hanging upside-down, face-to-face with Nico.

He starred at my, wide-eyed.

"Well don't just stand there, come on up." I raised myself upright and started to climb like Arthur had the night the hawk got out. Back then, people would fly birds with strings attached, like kites, in order to tame them. Arthur's older brother Kay had borrowed one of these birds in order to have some fun, but the hawk wasn't ready for flying without a string yet, and it got stuck in a tree. Kay left the bird there, but Arthur wouldn't give up. He climbed the tree and stayed there all night. I glanced down at Nico. He climbed more like Lancelot, who had spent his childhood training to be a knight and never got to enjoy being a kid. I climbed down a few feet to help him up onto the next branch.

"Thank-you, how about we just stay on this branch?"

"Alright,"

"So who were you running from earlier?" he asked, his dark brown eyes scanning me.

"Oh, no one, I just didn't want anyone to know where I was going, that's all."

"Why not?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if you wanted people to know you were here, hiding in the shadows."

"That's a fair point."

"Actually, I was wondering if I could tell my older brother. You see, he is starting to get suspicious with me running off all the time, and I don't want to lie to him."

"I thought you were all alone; I didn't know you had a brother," was it my imagination, or did I detect a bit of disappointment in his voice?

"Well, he's all grown up now, teaching sword-fighting lessons. Of course, I can't attend them without a partner."

"I see... well, I guess you could tell him about me if you make him promise not to tell anyone else."

I beamed at him, "Oh, thank-you Nico. Maybe we could even attend one of his lessons tomorrow on Monday."

"I don't' know…"

"Please?"

"Well, alright, but first can you help me get down from this tree?"


	4. Chapter 4

**_Author's Note: So, I would really like to know what people think of my story (anything they liked or disliked, anything to add or change), so please write me a review. I tried to get my brother to read it, but he doesn't really like reading... Anyway, this chapter is told from Nico's perspective (my chapters flip-flop perspectives, I might throw in another character's perspective every now and then so it's not just Malcolm and Nico)_**

Malcolm practically dragged me to the arena. As we ran, I admired the new editions the camp had built since the last time I left. There were many more cabins. Some I could identify from my knowledge of mythomagic; others were difficult to place. Malcolm took me to a clearing behind the Hermes cabin where a man stood, testing different blades from his sword rack. When he heard Malcolm and me, he turned to face us, smiling.

_What have I gotten myself into this time?_ I wondered._ It should have dawned on me that there was only one son of Athena that taught sword-fighting. We had never really gotten along I last saw Quintus had been in the second Titan war when he led the robot statue army. He fought bravely, but when the battle was over, there was no sign of him. I assumed he perished in the war. So many people died that day, it was difficult to keep track. Even I couldn't tell. My senses were skewed._

"Well, Malcolm told me he had a secret friend, but I wasn't expecting to see you, Nicholas Di Angelo," Quintus exclaimed.

"You know him?" Malcolm seemed a bit jealous.

"Yeah Malcolm, your little buddy here was one of my campers, before he ran away. You, know Nicholas, usually half-bloods run to camp, not from it." He raised his eyebrow at me

"Well, did you ever consider that maybe it wasn't the camp that I wanted to leave?" before he could respond, I added, "So, Quintus, I thought you were dead, though that hasn't stopped you before."

"What do-" Malcolm started, but Quintus cut him off.

"I thought a Hades child would know whether I was truly dead," Quintus smirked and took another step towards me, "or have your senses gone dull?"

"Nico, you-"

"Malcolm, I'll explain later," then, turning back to Quintus, "Quintus, how about we take this war of wits to the arena. Malcolm wanted a swordfight. Well, he's getting one."

Quintus laughed, "You really think you can beat me Nicholas?"

"Who said anything about beating you? I just wanted a chance to show you that I'm better than just some kid you can push around."

"You've got real spunk, kid. I'll even fight you one handed. Pick your weapon" he said, gesturing to the rack behind him."

"No, thanks, I've already got one," I said, crouching down and reaching into my shadow to pull out my stygian iron sword, leaving Quintus shocked.

I slashed at him, but he blocked each of my blows with his quick reflexes and deadly accuracy. He switched to offense and I could barely keep up. Malcolm tried to stop us, but he couldn't get close without getting hit, so instead he stayed back and shouted at us, but I didn't pay attention to what he was saying because I needed to concentrate. Dodging Quintus's sword was making me slowly back up. We fought and fought, but it was clear he was the superior swords-master, even with only one hand. Suddenly I felt the bark against my back. I was trapped. He placed the edge of his sword at my throat, not enough to cut me but enough so that I couldn't escape.

"I've got you now, Nicholas. I wonder, if I kill you, would your ghost come back to haunt me with your petty little insults, or would you just stay in the underworld with your shame?"

As I wondered how I could get out of this without looking cowardly, I noticed that Quintus was casting a very temping shadow on the ground underneath him. If I could only get a distraction…

"Quintus, stop it! You've made your point, just let him go!" Malcolm shouted.

Quintus hesitated, and as he did so, I stuck my right hand between my back and the tree, and, concentrating, plunged my hand into my shadow and out of his shadow, and grabbed his ankle. It wasn't enough to trip him, but I shocked him so much that he dropped his sword. After I retrieved my hand, I tackled him to the ground and kicked his sword away, pressing mine to his throat instead.

"I win," I whispered in his ear.

"But how did you…the…what?" Quintus was so unaccustomed to losing a sword fight that he seemed unable to form a complete sentence. I climbed off of him and turned to Malcolm. It was difficult to read his expression. His eyes were watery, red and full of pain, like the first time I met him, but his mouth seemed to be forming a smile. He rushed forward as if to hug me, then he slapped my face.

"What is the matter with you?! Don't you ever do something like that again!" he shouted, then in a quieter voice, he whispered "I'm so glad you're okay."

"Me too." I panted, "let's get out of here."

"You go on ahead," he glanced over at Quintus, still lying on the ground "let me go speak with my brother."

I watched Malcolm walk away from me, feeling ashamed of my actions. With a sigh, I cast one last look at him, and faded away.


End file.
